PROGRAM NOTES

Drawn from the large cycle Sirens, this setting of a Heine poem tells the story of the famed Lorelei, a siren singing atop a riverside rock. The strophic form of Heine’s poem is reflected in the music, which nods to his century’s musical conventions, but the piece dissolves into a trance at the mention of her “strange, powerful melody.” As the melancholic narrator tells us, both fisher and boat are never seen again.